Live: UN chief Guterres to meet Zelensky, Erdogan in Lviv

Issued on: 18/08/2022 – 05:12

11:00pm: Guterres arrives in Lviv ahead of his meeting with Zelensky and Erdogan

9:35pm: Russian strike on Kharkiv kills 6, says mayor

A Russian strike killed at least six people and wounded 16 others in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to the city’s mayor.

The attack started a fire in an apartment block, Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said on the Telegram app.

5:11pm: Ukraine buries unidentified victims of Bucha massacre

Unidentified remains of 21 victims of the Bucha massacre were buried Wednesday in a cemetery in the Kyiv satellite town that saw atrocities committed by retreating Russian forces in late March.

Reporting from Bucha, FRANCE 24’s Rob Parsons said the bodies were brought from the Bucha morgue, where they were being held while investigators tried to match the victims’ DNA. “But so far, for these ones at least, that’s proved not possible. Meanwhile each grave is marked with a number, so if investigations into the DNA come up with some kind of answers, the relatives will be notified and they can moved their loved ones to graveyards of their own choice,” explained Parsons.

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4:08pm: NATO says ‘urgent’ need to inspect Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

It is “urgent” that the UN’s atomic watchdog be allowed to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine that is under Russian military control, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.

Russia’s seizure of the plant “poses a serious threat to the safety and the security of this facility (and) raises the risks of a nuclear accident or incident,” he told reporters in Brussels.

“It is urgent to allow the inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency and to ensure the withdrawal of all Russian forces,” he said.

3:05pm: Russian Black Sea fleet names new commander: state news agency

Russia’s Black Sea fleet based in annexed Crimea has installed a new commander, RIA news agency cited sources as saying a day after Russian military bases on the peninsula were rocked by explosions in the past nine days.

If confirmed, the removal of the previous commander Igor Osipov would mark the most prominent sacking of a military official in the nearly six months since Russia launched its war on Ukraine, in which it has suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.

State-owned RIA cited the sources as saying the new chief, Viktor Sokolov, was introduced to members of the fleet’s military council in the port of Sevastopol.

12:25pm: Russia says it has ‘neutralised’ Islamist cell in Crimea

The top official in Russian-annexed Crimea has said Russia’s FSB security service has broken up what he described as a six-person terrorist cell of a banned Islamist group, a day after explosions rocked one of Russia’s military bases there.

“All of them are detained. The activities of the terrorists were coordinated, as one would expect, from the territory of the terrorist state of Ukraine,” Sergei Aksyonov, the official, said on Telegram.

Aksyonov said the suspects were members of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)